


A Pirate's Tale

by Doctor_Discord



Series: The Ego Manor [168]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Amputation, Missing Limbs, Pirates, Prosthetics, Story within a Story, Storytelling, phantom pains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23013520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doctor_Discord/pseuds/Doctor_Discord
Summary: Magnum tells the story of how he lost his legs.
Relationships: Bim Trimmer/The King of the Squirrels
Series: The Ego Manor [168]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1166384
Comments: 25
Kudos: 170





	A Pirate's Tale

Magnum liked to tell tales of his adventures out at sea. It was one of his favorite things to do. Sure, it made him miss the sea and his ship and his crew, but it also kept his memory alive. He was a very _dramatic_ story-teller. He liked his embellishments, his drama, his little white lies for dramatic effect. The Host wasn’t fond of his story-telling, though Bim had a running theory that he was just peeved his shtick was being taken over (Magnum was inclined to agree).

So, every so often, Magnum and a few of the egos who liked to listen gathered in the living area with some popcorn and listened to Magnum tell dramatic stories of pirate battles and buried treasure and writhing monstrous sea creatures. It was fun! A little entertainment a couple times a month. But…naturally, the egos were curious about one particular topic that Magnum seemed to _avoid_ with everything he had.

“Hey Magnum?”

They – Bim, King, Eric (recently back from his trip to Egypt), the Jims, Silver, and Yancy – were all settling down in their various positions in the living area as Magnum lumbered over to sit on the couch, his massive log legs pounding against the floor. He arched one bushy eyebrow as he sat down. “Yes?”

Bim cocked his head to the side. “Can I request something today?”

Magnum’s brow furrowed a little in confusion. _Request?_ “…Go ahead.”

“What happened to your legs?”

Magnum stiffened, and King smacked his boyfriend. “ _Bim!_ What the Hell?!”

Bim raised his hands in defense. “Hey, I’m curious! Don’t pretend you aren’t! I wanna know!”

Silver twisted around from his spot on the floor with the twins to glare at him. “At least _we_ have the tact to not _ask about it!_ ”

Bim stuck his tongue out at him, crossing his arms. Magnum sighed, running his fingers through his beard. “…Ye really want to know?” At the collective, hesitant nod, he leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. “Alright. Listen close. I’m only telling these tales once, y’hear?”

He cleared his throat, sighing again. He lifted his left leg briefly. “Lost this one first. Me and my crew were stranded on an island. We hadn’t pulled our rowboat ashore far enough, and the rising tide had swept it away back out to sea. The ship was anchored farther out at sea. We had no choice to swim out and try and catch our boat.” Magnum was visibly tensing, rubbing his left knee and the little left of his leg below it. “Little did we know, the area was infested with bull sharks.”

Eric’s hands flew to cover his mouth with a strangled noise, curling into a ball. Yancy had much the same reaction, pulling his legs up to chest and rubbing his own leg. A wry little smile spread across Magnum’s face. “ _Nasty_ bastards, bull sharks. Aggressive. I must’ve gotten too close to one. He bit, and didn’t let go. A’course, my blood in the water attracted others. By the time we managed to catch up to our row boat, I had three attached to my left, and one on my right. Right leg was salvageable, left…not so much.”

Silver looked very very _pale_ , the Jims holding hands tightly beside him, eyes locked on his left leg. King looked about ready to throw up, Yancy and Eric not much better. Bim was the one most unfazed, though he, too, was still pale. “…Oh.” He fidgeted, eyes flicking from Magnum’s legs to his own lap.

Magnum huffed, shifting to lean back on the couch. “It was bloody. We were weeks or months out from any mainland. Crew salvaged as much of it as they could. Ate one of the sharks for dinner.” He grinned, but that quickly faded. “A’course, we didn’t have yer fancy prosthetics. Didn’t really have any wood thick enough to fit my leg. I was bedridden most of the time, couldn’t much move with only one and a half legs. I had a peg leg, but it was too small, and it _hurt_. At that point, we were just tryin’ to get back to the mainland as fast as possible. And even when I _was_ fitted for a prosthetic, on land, and my legs healed…it didn’t feel right. But I lived.”

With all this talk about his legs, Magnum could feel his left beginning to ache. It wasn’t his _leg_ per se…phantom pains. Not bad ones, but it certainly didn’t feel _good_. Still, he kept going. “Lost my right a few years later. We were in warmer waters, and got caught in a tropical storm. Waves the size of those skyscrapers in the city. Ship nearly capsized. _Several_ times. I was tryin’ to _keep_ it from goin’ belly up, tryin’ to get my crew safe. Waves kept crashing over the deck, and knocked one of the younger mates off his feet. Couldn’t get back up. I went to help, and managed to get them on their feet again before the _biggest_ wave I’ve ever seen crashed into us.” He couldn’t help but flinch at the memory. “I was nearly swept overboard. But that wasn’t _nearly_ terrifying as the _cracking_ sound.”

Eric gasped, now curled into just as tight a ball as Yancy, hands tight over his ears. Magnum shot him a concerned look, reaching over to lay one massive hand on Eric’s shoulder. “You alright, lad?”

Eric nodded stiffly. “Y-yeah. I-I-I’m okay. You…you can keep going.”

Magnum nodded slowly, lifting his hand and leaning back again. “Right. The crack was the mast splintering under the force of the sea. While I was flounderin’, trying to get me bearings again, it fell. Crushed both me legs, that measly little metal prosthetic never stood a chance. Near drowned, stuck laying on the deck in that storm.”

A collective flinch rippled through the room. CJ cleared his throat, knuckles white from how tight he was squeezing RJ’s hand. “How…h-how did you survive?”

Magnum snorted, grinning a bit. “It'll take a bit more than a storm to kill me. And pirates know how to handle missing limbs. Chopped my leg off while it was still under the mast, roughly even with my other stump, and used that same mast for _these!_ ” He stomped his logs once onto the carpet. “ _Much_ better than some metal.” His gaze shifted to Bim. “So there ye have it. That’s how a lost me legs.”

Bim’s horrified, pale expression faded after a second, into a bit of a cheeky, lopsided grin. “So…how’d you get that scar across your eye?”

King smacked Bim again, and Magnum laughed, loud and hearty, despite the phantom pains making him ache. “ _That’s_ a story for another day. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

He stood footsteps shaking the manor as he retreated back to his room to suffer out his pains.

**Author's Note:**

> I really like this one!!! A friend on discord helped me come up with these a while back, and I just had to write a story about it! :D  
> Sunday's story is a Dark one uwu
> 
> Tumblr: doctordiscord123.tumblr.com


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